OTTAWA — Mikael Tellqvist had plenty of advance notice that he was making his first

start in goal for the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night in Scotiabank Place.

Tellqvist and coach Lindy Ruff both revealed prior to the game that Tellqvist knew going into

last weekend he would get the call for the Sabres' game against the Ottawa Senators.

Patrick Lalime started Saturday's shootout loss to Atlanta, his ninth straight game since Ryan

Miller's ankle injury, and Tellqvist took over Tuesday. He was solid with 32 saves, but the

Sabres fell to the Senators, 4-2.

"I take pride in the job I do, try to work hard in practice and stay in shape," Tellqvist

said. "Especially down the stretch, that's going to be important. I tried to do that tonight

and it's just too bad we couldn't get a win."

"Patty [Patrick Lalime] had been going so well that we told [Tellqvist] that Patty would get

the Atlanta game and you were going to get the Ottawa game to give him lots of time to

prepare," Ruff said following the morning skate.

"You look at the schedule with back-to-back again coming up too [Friday against Philadelphia

and Saturday at the New York Rangers] and we're trying to find places to drop him in and let

him play."

Tellqvist was 7-5-1 in 15 games with Phoenix this year (13 starts), posting a 2.86

goals-against average and .907 save percentage. He had not started since Feb. 19 but said he

wasn't concerned about being rusty, as he was used to long layoffs in Phoenix playing behind

Ilya Bryzgalov.

"I sat for 16 games in the beginning of the year and a lot in the middle so I'm not too

worried about it," he said.

The biggest thing Tellqvist has worked on in practice is learning the tendencies of the

Buffalo defensemen so communication works when playing the puck behind the net.

"We've stressed communication," Ruff said. "He needs to hear the defense talking and he has to

rely on them to get to the right spots for him."

"You prepare a little different when you know you're going to be playing," Tellqvist said.

"You work a little extra in practice on game situations and I've been doing a lot of that with

[goaltenders coach Jim Corsi]. If you're not communicating, it's going to be a problem."

As it turned out, Tellqvist had no problem in that area. He made several sparkling saves in

the final two periods but was frustrated by Brendan Bell's screened shot that capped the

Ottawa scoring and gave the Senators insurance.

"I was looking and trying to find it," he said. "I kind of lost it and it went top shelf. That

one hurts, obviously. You want to make that big save for your teammates.

"We took way too many penalties and we had a couple mistakes cost us in the third. We couldn't

find a way to win. Just one of those games."

* * *

Toni Lydman's goal was just his second of the season and first since Dec. 12.

Jason Pominville's first-period goal was his first actual five-on-five tally since

Jan. 1 at Toronto and just his second in the last 52 games.

The NHL officially counts his tying goal in the final seconds of the Feb. 13 game against San

Jose as a five-on-five goal but it actually came with Ryan Miller on the bench and was scored

in a six-on-five situation.

The Senators have won five straight at home while Buffalo is just 1-6-2 in its last

nine on the road. Ottawa outscored the Sabres 13-2 in the second period of the teams' six

meetings this year and had an 84-46 edge in shots on goal.

* * *

Tyler Myers, the 6-foot-7 defenseman who was Buffalo's first-round pick in last June's draft

held here, was named the NHL's ninth-best prospect in the annual Future Watch issue of the

Hockey News.

Myers, 19, saw his stock soar with an impressive effort for Canada in the World Junior

Championships in Ottawa earlier this season. He has nine goals and 33 assists in 58 games for

Kelowna of the Western Hockey League.